‘We lean on her a lot’: Freshman Bianca Jackson steps up for USC’s depleted backcourt

As Dawn Staley put together her starting backcourt this offseason, attempting to fill the gaps left by Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray, many assumed she would turn to senior Bianca Cuevas-Moore.

Then, before the regular season began, Cuevas-Moore went down with a sprained knee. In her place, redshirt senior Lindsey Spann stepped up, ranking second on the team in points and proving herself as South Carolina’s best 3-point shooter.

But then, Spann sprained her knee in the last week of November. With redshirt junior Te’a Cooper sitting out the first semester as a transfer, Staley’s Gamecocks were left with only four guards, less than a week before they were to face one of the best guard combos in the country in Duke’s Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell.

So Staley turned to freshman Bianca Jackson and tasked her with stopping the all-conference honoree Greenwell.

Just two games before the Duke contest, Staley said Jackson had looked like a “deer in headlights” while facing highly ranked Notre Dame, playing just 13 minutes and contributing four points.

“Hopefully, she’ll be ready to rock and roll and play a high caliber basketball team,” Staley said before the game. “She’s learning. She’s learning on the job and sometimes that’s difficult for a freshman, but she’s up for the challenge.”

As it turned out, she was. Greenwell, one of the top 3-point shooters in the country, was scoreless from beyond the arc and had eight points, two assists and two turnovers in 38 minutes of play. Jackson, meanwhile, didn’t exactly stuff the stat sheet, but her defensive effort made an impression with her teammates and coaches.

“We’ve played Duke for a few years now, and no one’s ever played Rebecca that way,” Staley said of Jackson’s performance. “Bianca really didn’t have a lot of offensive (responsibilities) like Tiffany Mitchell had and Kaela (Davis) and Allisha (Gray), but she really locked in. She really locked in on the game plan, and she grew up tonight.”

The performance also impressed another college basketball coach — Jackson’s mother, Freda, the head coach at Alabama State.

“She really buckled down, and I thought she played great defense,” Freda Jackson said of her daughter’s performance. “She just really did a good job of doing what was asked of her. After the game, she said, ‘She didn’t score on me, Mom,’ and I said, ‘You did your job.’ ”

Freda Jackson actually began the season by playing her daughter and South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena on Nov. 3, but both mother and daughter tried to keep the matchup focused on the basketball, even as they admitted to being excited about it.

“Just to go out and play hard and not think about how much family I have in the stands and just do what I’ve been told,” Bianca Jackson said about the instructions her mom gave her before the game.

Doing what she’s been told has worked out for Jackson so far. In the past nine years, Kelsey Bone, Tiffany Mitchell and Tyasha Harris are the only South Carolina freshmen to average more than 25 minutes per game. Jackson is averaging 25.5 so far, and with Spann and Cuevas-Moore sidelined and their return unclear, she will likely continue to start.

“I’m just trying to step up for my team and do what’s asked of me. We need a little bit more offense now that Lindsey’s gone, so I’m just trying to get in where I can and help our team out as much as possible,” Jackson said before Duke.

Throughout the season, Jackson never has scored in double figures and is averaging fewer than four rebounds and assists per game. But her backcourt mate, Harris, said she is making an impact.

“She’s progressed really well. She asks a lot of questions. A ton of questions. We call her questionnaire, actually,” Harris said after the Gamecocks defeated College of Charleston on Dec. 5 “I think she’s progressed really well and she’s fit into the role really well, and we lean on her a lot and she can take it.”

Freda Jackson says that poise comes from Bianca’s father Lewis, Alabama State’s men’s basketball coach, and a lifetime of playing point guard.

“She’s very humble and she really understands the game, so I’m pretty sure that (Staley trusts) that she wouldn’t get out of her character,” Jackson said. “She’ll just pretty much do what is asked of her ... she’s accustomed to being a team player and also to understanding who needs the ball at what particular time in the game. So she’s very knowledgeable. And that’s one of the things I’m so proud of her for, being a student of the game.”

Bianca Jackson and South Carolina return to the floor Sunday to face Savannah State at Colonial Life Arena at 3 p.m.

This story was originally published December 16, 2017 at 4:59 PM with the headline "‘We lean on her a lot’: Freshman Bianca Jackson steps up for USC’s depleted backcourt."